His
friends and family know him as Adam Holtz, but to thousands of children
everywhere he's known as The Great Holtzie; one of the few purely
children's comedians out there.

The
Great Holtzie performed Monday at the First Philadelphia Charter School
(4300 Tacony St). Equipped with a hilarious arsenal of gags and jokes,
he made the students roll with laughter at his offbeat brand of humor.
Holtz opened his show saying he was tired and that he was going out to
his car to take a nap before walking off stage. Coming out in a wig, he
said he was Hannah Montana which made every kid go wild.

"His
humor is almost like slapstick. It’s the type of humor that kids and
adults enjoy. Its universal," says Jim Stanton, Administrator at First
Philadelphia Charter. Students felt the same way. "It was funny,"
announced Amelia, a 3rd grader at the school. "I thought it was
entertaining. I like when he ate worms," said Kwand, also a 3rd grader.

The
Great Holtzie himself had as much fun performing for the First
Philadelphia Charter School as the students. "This is my second year
and these kids are really fun. They’re well behaved and enthusiastic.
The kids make it easy and fun for me to perform," says Holtz.

For
parents tired of the typical clown routines of twisting balloons or
cleaning up pony poop in their backyard, The Great Holtzie keeps
children in hysterics through a combination of standup comedy and
hilarious props.

"I
want to bring a fresh and new take on children’s entertainment. I’m not
reinventing the wheel, just making it a lot faster and a lot cooler,"
says Holtz. "I love kids, I love making them laugh."

Philadelphia Magazine took notice of Holtz, and included him in their Best of 2008 issue, for Best Comedian for Children.

Laughter
is often said to be the best medicine, so the Great Holtzie has also
volunteered at Children’s Hospital. "I’d do it every week if I could."

Part
of his act is self-deprecating humor that the kids seize on and are
able to respond back. Holtz is a very animated individual, so kids pay
attention and many of the routines are visual.

Holtz
has always gotten along very well with kids. Whether he’s entertaining
his stepdaughter, or his sister’s kids, he says he has always been the
ringleader when it came to entertaining kids for their birthdays.

Disillusioned
with a career in headhunting for IT firms, he decided in March of 2007
to dedicate his life to the art of making children laugh. "It was all
about making money," says Holtz of his former profession. "Kids are
like animals. They’ll detect if you’re not sincere and true, they’ll
eat you up."

Starting
out, he used a lot of shtick that made those children in his life laugh
and he then tweaked it a bit for larger settings. His first gig was a
birthday party for his friends’ son. Since then, his largest audience
has been at the Keswick Theater, where for two nights he performed in
front of an audience of 800-900 people. He has also performed at Penn’s
Landing, branches of the Philadelphia Free Library, WXPN Music
Festival, and the Colonial Theater.

"Word
of mouth is strong," says Holtz. "I really want [the act] to resonate
with the kids." He sometimes gets a call from a parent who says, "My
child saw you and won’t shut up about you."

Typically,
Holtz performs at birthday parties, camps, schools, and daycare
centers. The Philadelphia City Paper dubbed him the "Anti-Mr. Rogers."

Holtz
gets many of his ideas from walking around Toys R Us. In one of his
routines he gets into an argument with his See N Say. Kids also crack
up at him reading from his Pet Shop Diary and wearing a Hannah Montana
wig.

Other
routines have involved The Great Holtzie pretending to eat worms out of
McDonalds cartons, attempting motivational speeches with a straw
hanging out his nose ("The children are the future!"), and exploding
snakes.

"Its
a performance I approach like a comedian. It’s geared toward young kids
and their parents," says Holtz. The parents and kids often laugh at the
same joke but for different reasons.

There
are also obligatory fart and burping jokes, with the occasional
underwear on the head (which always elicits a rise from the crowd).
Anyone with a remote control fart machine will certainly gain respect
from a young child. He also pretends to hand out gag gifts to children
that have included steak knives and a book on Richard Nixon. Of course,
the children don’t actually receive those gifts.

A
lot of what sets him apart from other children’s entertainers is his
lack of a steady costume or make-up. He’s not a clown or a magician
like so many others who show up and do the same tricks over and over
again. When a child gets older, they have seen the act before, so Holtz
has changed it up.

"I
wanted to update children’s entertainment," says The Great Holtzie.
"Some parents don’t expect what they get. They don’t expect to see
their kid laugh so hard or stay focused for so long."

To
date, Holtz estimates that he’s done a few hundred shows, with seventy
of them this past summer. Happy to be away from the corporate culture
he once worked in, Holtz began to reflect on what his legacy would be
and what he found fulfilling. "I’m able to give back to the world,"
says Holtz.